What is the vacant property fee in Saudi Arabia?
Short answer
The vacant property fee is an annual charge, added to the white land fees law by Royal Decree M/244, calculated as a share of the building’s fair rent and capped at 5% of its value, although the Council of Ministers can raise the cap to 10%. It applies to a building left unused for 6 months, continuous or not, within a 12-month reference year, provided the building meets the regulation’s conditions, the first being that it lies in a geographic zone announced by the Minister of Municipalities and Housing. As of the review date (5 October 2026) no city had been announced, and the fee does not apply before such an announcement.
When is a building vacant and subject to the fee?
The Vacant Property Fees Implementing Regulation, published in the Umm Al-Qura gazette on 15 May 2026, defines a “building” as any fixed structure, or independent part of one, that can be occupied and whose occupancy can be measured on its own; the program portal says the fee applies to the property or to its vacant part. A building counts as vacant if it stays unused for 6 months during the reference year.
The fee applies only if all five conditions in Article 8 are met during the reference year:
- The building is inside the announced zone.
- It can be occupied or holds an occupancy certificate, depending on its use and location.
- Its use is one of the uses listed in the minister’s decision.
- The owner’s number of vacant properties in the zone is at least the minimum the decision sets for each use.
- Its use of utilities and services stays below the minimum set for its type of use.
How much is the fee and who pays it?
A ministerial decision sets each zone’s rate as a share of fair rent, capped at 5% of the building’s value; a building worth SAR 1,500,000 therefore cannot be charged more than SAR 75,000 a year, which is a ceiling under the current cap, not the actual amount. Fair rent and building value are assessed by a technical committee that includes licensed valuers.
The liable person is the owner, including anyone in the owner’s position such as a usufructuary under a documented usufruct contract, and co-owners pay in proportion to their shares. The fee is due within 6 months of notification of the invoice, an invoice for earlier years within 90 days; objections go to the competent committee within 60 days of notification, with a further challenge before the administrative court. Fines for violations may not exceed the fee due.
Why has no city been announced yet?
The Ministry of Municipalities and Housing announced its approval of the regulation on 13 May 2026, saying cities and zones would be announced once the vacancy criteria apply. Under Article 5, a zone qualifies if any one of four criteria is met: a high share of vacant properties, high housing costs relative to annual household income, property prices high relative to the consumer price index, or high vacancy among owners of more than one vacant property. The ministry must then keep monitoring for at least 12 months, and only if the criterion persists is an announcement issued by ministerial decision naming the city, the zone, the start of the reference year and the disclosure deadline.
As of 5 October 2026 no such announcement appeared in the ministry’s news, on the program portal or in Umm Al-Qura, and the portal says the fee will not cover every city.
Does a lease prove a unit is not vacant?
The regulation does not mention Ejar or lease contracts at all; what matters is whether the building is actually used and how much it consumes in utilities and services. The portal says the assessment does not turn merely on whether the unit is offered for sale or rent and that vacancy is checked through technical and operational indicators and data links with the relevant agencies.
Follow-up questions
Do I owe a fee on my empty apartment now?
No fee is due before an announcement covers its city and zone, and no city had been announced by 5 October 2026. Even after an announcement, whether a single apartment is covered depends on the minimum number of vacant properties per owner, a figure the regulation leaves to the minister’s decision.
Can the fee be charged retroactively?
The program portal says the fee is not applied before zones are approved and announced. Once a zone is announced, however, the regulation allows fees for earlier years to be calculated from the date the property became subject to the application decision in that zone.
When does the fee stop?
When any condition for the fee no longer holds, when an impediment to occupancy arises that the owner did not cause, when the building is sold under an official document, when an occupancy certificate is issued during the reference year (unless the building already had a full electricity connection before it), or when the vacancy is due to pressing and valid reasons and the building is the owner’s registered main address, with supporting documents.
Official sources
- White Land and Vacant Property Fees Law — Bureau of Experts at the Council of Ministers
- Vacant Property Fees Implementing Regulation — Umm Al-Qura Gazette
- Ministry of Municipalities and Housing: approval of the Vacant Property Fees Implementing Regulation
- White Land and Vacant Property Fees portal: vacant property regulation and FAQ
General information for guidance, not legal advice; the governing regulations and official bodies are the final reference.
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